(January 4, 2018) U.S. new light-vehicle sales slipped 5 percent in December and dipped 1.8 percent to 17.25 million for all of 2017 — ending a string of seven annual gains that had propelled the industry to new highs following the 2008-09 market collapse.

The U.S. Big Three all showed decreased sales in 2017 — Ford was down .9 percent, General Motors was off 2016 numbers by 1.3 percent and Fiat Chrysler slipped 8.1 percent. Only Ford showed a slight gain in December from December 2016 at 1.3 percent. December sales were down at General Motors by 3.3 percent and at Fiat Chrysler by 10.7 percent.

While both Honda and Nissan showed record sales in 2017 — Honda up by two-tenths percent with sales of 1,641,429 and Nissan up by 1.9 percent with sales of 1,564,423 — they were down in December by 7 and 9.5 percent respectively.

At Toyota, volume slipped 8.3 percent in December. For the year Toyota sales including the Lexus brand were off six-tenths percent. Lexus slipped 7.9 percent. Total sales for Hyundai-Kia were down 10.4 percent for the year.

Subaru extended its U.S. sales gains to 73 months year over year with a 0.3 percent increase in December deliveries. It was the company's smallest monthly increase of the year but enough to set an annual record of 647,956 cars and light trucks.

Among luxury brands in December, volume rose 10 percent at Mercedes, 4.3 percent at BMW and 16 percent at Audi, but dropped 21 percent at Jaguar, 13.9 percent at Lexus, 28.6 percent at Cadillac, 17 percent at Lincoln, 3.6 percent at Land Rover, and 2.5 percent at Porsche.

Sources: Manufacturers, news reports